Discovery Channel Tamil(தமிழ்): Dedicated new Channel in Tamil

Discovery India has launched an dedicated Tamil Channel: Discovery Tamil. Before this, they used to just give multiple audio feed on the Discovery CHannel: English,Hindi,Telugu,Bangla and Tamil. The problem with that is , it still has English on video feed and the advertisements are in English and Hindi catering to the bigger market. Probably they should have found that with local advertising they could cater to local advertisements. This indicates they have good amount of viewership for Discovery in Taminadu where Sun TV is dominating major viewership.

Now this dedicated Tamil channel is available in most areas in Tamilnadu. But had negative impact on the DTH segment. Now they have removed the Tamil audio feed from the original Discovery Channel. So the DTH like Tatasky does not have Tamil discovery in both forms. They may not add the dedicated Tamil channel as well. Probably other DTH like Dish TV,Airtel,Videocon may add this channel.

“The library is the same,” said Rahul Johri, Senior Vice President and General Manager – South Asia, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, adding, “The nature of programming changes.” He further said, “Around the world, Discovery follows which market is mature enough, and they can give audiences a dedicated theme as in India, or even Singapore or Japan.”

Launching its seventh Network Discovery Channel Tamil, Johri said, “There are genre preferences for audiences. In India, we have split Discovery into two – HSM market and the Tamil separate market.” He went on to elaborate, “The look and feel is different. It’s personalized to suit the Tamil audience and more compelling.”

Johri noted, “The viewership pattern in Tamil Nadu and rest of India is contrasting and demands customised product offerings. Our intensive research with the Tamil Nadu viewers has encouraged us to launch a dedicated new channel in their native language with focused programming. I am confident that both local and national advertisers targeting unique and quality audience will find the network a compelling advantage.”

“Earlier, even if the audience had preferences for different genres, it was being programmed for the whole country,” Johri said. As far as the reach goes, he pointed out, “The test feed was for 300 towns and there was 100 per cent distribution covering 1,000 homes.” As far as the response goes, he said, “Down the line, Discovery is the first channel of its kind to offer specific theme for a language audience. Now no one offers this.”

Commenting on the region that this channel will be catering to, Johri concluded, “Tamil Nadu is a very high consumption market. This insight has led us to provide a channel for this market.”

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